My birthday falls in the middle of July, so to celebrate we travelled down to The Corran Resort & Spa in South Wales with Elsa. We had such a lovely time at this dog friendly hotel, the food was absolutely amazing and the location was so beautiful. It was the first time we’ve made travel arrangements via PetsPyjamas and we were very impressed with their service too. We got an amazing deal that included dinner, bed and breakfast, a 25 minute spa treatment per adult and a bottle of Prosecco! (I think this offer runs until December 2017 so it’s worth checking out if you are looking for a relaxing long weekend!)

While we were in South Wales we also explored Tenby, Saundersfoot, Amroth and Laugharne, but ultimately spent most of our time on the beach at Pendine Sands!

Tenby

Saundersfoot

Amroth

Laugharne

Pendine Sands

One of my birthday gifts was a photo shoot with Staffordshire Phodography. This took place at The Roaches in the Peak District. Although the rain held off, it was unbelievably windy! Elsa had a great time and Will managed to get some really good photographs of her. If you are thinking of booking a photo shoot for your dog we would highly recommend Staffordshire Phodography, the whole experience was just so much fun!

The Roaches are close to Leek in Staffordshire, so we decided to head there for lunch after the photo shoot and ended up at The Market Kitchen Cafe where we enjoyed a delicious homemade toastie and a coffee. Of course we couldn’t go to Leek without paying a visit to Dougal’s Den! We got Elsa a Frozzys frozen yogurt as a reward for being so good on the photo shoot and she was very happy with her treat.

We had a few more days off so we arranged to meet Piglet at The Swettenham Arms in Cheshire for lunch…This delightful country pub has a beautiful lavender plantation so we had a bit of fun taking photographs of Piglet & Elsa in the sea of purple. The best part of the day was when we were joined by several other dogs who were out walking in the area. Elsa was in her element as she hurried from dog to dog trying to choose who to play with next! It was a magical afternoon full of fun for the dogs, and we enjoyed meeting their lovely owners too.

The next date in our diary was the Canine Capers event at The Dorothy Clive Garden. Elsa was invited to be a ‘bridesmaid’ at a Dog Wedding that was being staged as part of this fundraising event… how could we refuse? Piglet was invited to be a pageboy and the happy couple were chosen via a competition on Facebook. Coincidentally the bride and groom were also Lhasa Apsos! Everything went smoothly on the day and the ‘Wedding’ itself drew a big crowd who watched with both disbelief and amusement. It certainly made everyone smile as it was all for a good cause at the end of the day!

Elsa and I spent a day at Four Paws Groom School in Northwich, Cheshire on a ‘Groom Your Own Dog Day’ course. It was a long day for both of us as our tutor Sian took us through the full process from nail clipping to brushing, bathing and styling Elsa’s coat. I love grooming Elsa but this course taught me so much more about how to properly brush her, as well as how to actually trim her fur so that I can do this part at home too. Although I never underestimated the hard work that groomers do, I can definitely fully appreciate how labour-intensive their job is! I took lots of notes and I’m looking forward to my first solo attempt at trimming her fur when it needs doing again in a few weeks time… Wish me luck!

And a final highlight for July: Paws across Britain has been featured as one of the top 9 Pet Bloggers by Holiday Lettings!

The pack has almost doubled this month and we are delighted to welcome Bertie, Fraiser & Niles, Buddy, Rocco & Enzo Riley, Kobee, Piglet and Louie! They have all been sharing their favourite dog friendly locations with us and we have added these to the PaB Map too.

Kobee’s owner Louise has also kindly put some information together explaining how you go about travelling to Europe from Britain with your dog! Click here to read more.

Next month – In August we will be returning to Shrewsbury to explore a few more dog friendly locations!

We got our paws on a copy of ‘Bodie on the Road‘ by Belinda Jones so we’ll be reading all about his adventures across the Pacific coast highway in America. Bodie also has his own blog www.bodieontheroad.com – he and Elsa share a love of travel and beaches and we hope that one day their paths may cross…

We’re working with Staffordshire Phodography to put together an article detailing various photography tips. We’ll be updating our Grooming article soon too and sharing a few more grooming products…

We’ll also be at The Pet Show which is being held at Staffordshire Showgrounds on the 19/20th August, so if you spot us please say hello!

About the Author

Kelly graduated from university with a Ba (Hons) in Journalism, but fate took her down a different career path… until a little furry muse came into her life and she discovered blogging as a creative outlet to share her love of writing, photography, travel and dogs!